Western Sahara: Kohler Briefs the Security Council in January

WASHINGTON – THE UN envoy for Western Sahara, Horst Kohler, is expected in January in New York to brief the Security Council on the last round table of Geneva and the steps he intends to undertake in anticipation of the relaunch of the UN process.

The Security Council will probably receive at this meeting another briefing by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations on the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), whose mandate is to 'completes the next April 30, indicates the provisional agenda of this UN body for the month of January.

These consultations take place pursuant to resolution 2440, which requests the UN Secretary-General to keep the Security Council informed of developments in Western Sahara, three months after the adoption of the resolution or to whenever he sees fit.

According to the same source, the meeting will most likely be sanctioned by a statement in which the Security Council should welcome the first talks in Geneva, reiterate the support for Horst Kohler while underlining the momentum generated by the resumption of negotiations between the parties to the conflict, the Polisario Front and Morocco.

For a year now, the question of Western Sahara has come back on the Security Council's peace agenda, backed by the United States, which wants to put an end to this frozen conflict.

Washington, annoyed by the blockage of the peace process, has maintained pressure in the Security Council to support a resumption of stalled talks since 2012.

The US delegation to the UN last October referred to "a new approach" by the United States for the settlement of this conflict, saying that there can no longer be "business as usual" with MINURSO and Western Sahara

"Firstly, there can no longer be a status quo in Western Sahara, secondly, we must give our full support to the personal envoy Kohler in his efforts to achieve a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution that will allow the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara ", had at that time declared US Deputy Ambassador Jonathan Cohen.

More affirmative, Jonathan Cohen said that "the Security Council will not let MINURSO and Western Sahara fall into oblivion."

Barely two months after the vote extending the mandate of MINURSO, the White House, through the voice of National Security Council (NSC) chief John Bolton, expressed frustration over the deadlock over the Sahara issue Western Union, affirming that it was time for the UN mission to fulfill its mandate.

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